Alexander McDougall

Alexander McDougall (1732-9 June 1786) was a Major-General in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. McDougall was a Scottish immigrant to the Thirteen Colonies, and he was involved with the Sons of Liberty before the war, and he served in the New York Senate after the war's end.

Biography
Alexander McDougall was born on the Isle of Islay, Inner Hebrides, Scotland in 1732, and the family immigrated to New York in the Thirteen Colonies in 1738. The family settled in New York City, and McDougall worked as a merchant seaman for years. During the French and Indian War, McDougall served as a British privateer against France, and he made a fortune in capturing ships and selling their cargo. McDougall became an active leader of the Sons of Liberty in New York in the years following the war, and he was jailed for five months from 1770 to 1771 for his political activism. During the prelude to the American Revolutionary War, he befriended Alexander Hamilton, and he became the colonel of a New York regiment in the Continental Army during the war. McDougall fought in the New York campaign of 1776, and he commanded American forces at West Point for much of the war. In 1780, he was elected to the Continental Congress, and he served as Secretary of Marine from 7 February to 29 August 1781. From 1784 until his death two years later, he served in the New York State Senate.